The Slavs and their states

The term “Slavs” appears in written sources from the 6th century in the works of Byzantine historians. In the 6th–7th centuries they spread over wide lands from the Elbe in the west to the Dnieper and beyond in the east, and from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Danube and the Balkans in the south, and they split into three groups: western Slavs (from whom the Czechs, Poles and Slovaks later came), southern Slavs (Bulgarians, Serbs, Croats, Slovenes and others) and eastern Slavs (later the Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians). They farmed, kept livestock, practised crafts and fished; important matters were settled at the people’s assembly, the “veche”, with a prince and a war band at the head. Their beliefs were based on the forces of nature and the spirits of ancestors. The Bulgarian kingdom was founded in the Balkans at the end of the 7th century by Khan Asparukh of the Turkic Bulgars, who mixed over time with the local Slavs, and it was strongest under Simeon (893–927). The Czech state formed in the early 10th century under the Přemyslid dynasty; Prince Wenceslas (around 920–935) supported Christianity, was murdered and later honoured as a saint. Poland was founded in the mid-10th century by Prince Mieszko I, and his son Bolesław the Brave expanded its borders.